Saturday, 15 December 2012

In Their Thousands

Having graced the cover of Hotpress and
won a coveted spot performing at next year's Artur's Day
celebrations, Donegal natives In Their Thousands have come a long way
in 18 short months.

But it's little wonder. Made up of
brothers Declan and Aidan McClafferty, cousin Ruairi Friel and
longtime friend Liam Kelly the boys have been playing together in
various projects for years. They're well known in their home county
for playing in different cover bands, but they knew they would never
reach their full potential playing other people's songs.

Spoiler Alert: They've moved on.

“Even when we were playing in cover
bands we were always writing. It came to the stage where we were
playing cover gigs and just not enjoying it. We felt we should be
playing or at least trying to play our own music. We put more time
into that rather than putting time into other people's music. It was
just a better thing to do for ourselves” guitarist Ruairi Friel
says.

“It was kind of difficult, whenever
you're playing covers regularly you can make a decent enough wage out
of it, but there's no money in playing your own stuff. Even though
we weren't making any money, and we still aren't making any money out
of it, it still feels better. It feels like exactly what we want to
do”.

The band quickly won themselves a
dedicated following with their skillful guitar playing and
mesmerising four part harmonies. In singer Declan McClafferty they
possess a truly distinctive voice, veering effortlessly from raspy
yelps to lilting falsettos. These talents didn't go unnoticed by
Hotpress editor Niall Stokes while the band were participating in the
Play On the Day competition

The nationwide event aimed at finding
the best new talent to perform at next year's Arthur's Day
celebrations provided stiff competition for In Their Thousands, and
Friel admits the band had no expectations going into it.

“Listening to the shortlist we didn't
think we would get that far in it. In Dublin when the final four
bands were there the standard was pretty high. There was the guys
from The Hot Sprockets, who're a serious band and so are Protobaby
and The Calvinists. We thought it was very steep competition. We were
very happy just to be able to play along with those other bands”.

As part of the competition the band
were featured on the cover of Hotpress and even caused Niall Stokes
to label them “A band with huge international potential.....Superb
musicians making a truly original and epic noise”.

In Their Thousands recently released
the Cellars EP, the second in a four part series by the band, which
they recorded with Villagers guitarist Tommy McLaughlin.

“He has a studio in Termon in Donegal
and we went in there for about a week. He was great to work with. It
was a very free, open atmosphere to record in. He'd just let you go
in and do your thing and recorded it in the best way we could have
hoped for” Ruairi says.

Deciding to do something unique for the
launch, the boys lured their fans far into North Donegal for a very
special show.

“We wanted to do something a wee bit
different with the launch for it. So we decided not to tell anyone
where it was going to be and sold some tickets. In the end we took
about 3 or 4 buses from Letterkenny way up into Fanad. We emptied a
shed and set it up like a venue, with drapes and a proper stage and a
good PA and all. It was pretty cool”.